Saturday, October 27, 2012

Bring a mani back from the dead!

After three good, long days of wear, I finally did have to admit to some noticeable chipping on the tips and dulling of my top coat from my beloved Wet n Wild Haze of Love mani. (I won't blame this on Wet n Wild--polishes never last long on my claws. I may be a wild woman myself, or maybe I just need a better base coat!)

Wet n Wild Haze of Love on my nails, with noticeable chipping

However, being the stubborn girl I am, I wasn't yet ready to part with all of that basework I'd done--one layer of base coat, two layers of color, and all that drying time.

I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to play around with a recently acquired polish--my very first indie, in fact!

Say hello to Feenix Polish Embers.

Embers has a brown sheer, jelly-like base with red, orange, and silver micro-glitters. I suspect it takes its name from the embers of a fire--because that's exactly what it looks like on the nails! It can be layered and worn on its own, but I prefer it as a top coat over a dark base, and that's exactly what you'll see here!

Something I love about densely-packed glitter polishes is how well they work at covering bald spots on the nails. Glitter polishes alone are known for chipping even more than, say, cream or regular jelly polishes, but the great thing about them is how easy they are to touch up (or to be used as touch-ups!). Just paint back over the chipped spots, and it's pretty difficult to tell you were ever there a second (or third!) time.

As you can see way above, I only had major chipping on one nail, so I decided to do glitter accent nails, including the nail that had chipped, and touch up the remaining nails with new layers of top coat. This was the result:

Wet n Wild Haze of Love on all nails,
with Feenix Polish Embers as top coat on middle two

I just wish I had better photos to illustrate exactly how the glitters of Embers look on the nails!

The most important thing? No chips to be seen here! My mani was able to last me until the end of the week, and Embers gave it that little extra oomph that made it just a little more interesting.

If you're interested in Embers, you can check it out (as well as many other polishes) at Feenix Polish on Etsy. I was generously supplied with my bottle free of charge, thanks to a giveaway I won at Chestnut Mocha. (Thank you to Ben and Katie of CM and Suzette of Feenish Polish!)
Do you have any emergency mani tips or tricks?